Pól Ó Lorcáin
Paul Larkin

Chroniclers are privileged to enter where they
list, to come and go through keyholes, to ride
upon the wind, to overcome in their soarings up
and down, all obstacles of distance, time and
place.
Charles Dickens - Barnaby Rudge,
Chapter The Ninth

Christmas homage to Copenhagen

I am abroad early in København,
gateway to ancient Baltic waters
her hallowed streets waiting for winter
quiet and wreathed in mist
mazing me through cobbled lanes and canals
the dark red hush of brick at the university

Chapter 15 of the De Silva Report has destroyed the final spook infiltration myth - and tells us why these stories were put into circulation

The author - more than just a Troubled face

Having worked for BBC Northern Ireland from the late 1980s through to 1994 as a journalist and film maker, mostly for the much respected Spotlight programme, I saw certain Troubles related stories begin to appear in the late 1990s that made me sit back, scratch my head and say – that doesn’t sound right, does not match my experience, or is not what I was told by the IRA, loyalists or the security forces.

At first I just shrugged my shoulders and got on with a film making and writing career that had no connection with the Troubles. So for example, I wrote and directed a six part music series for TG4 Abair Amhráin and a series on architecture called Nation Building, both of which were well received. My television series on Ireland’s historical ties with Europe made for RTÉ in the 90s (The Gap In The Mountain) gained for me the great accolade of being awarded the European Journalist of the Year Award in 1997.

Is De Silva aware that the same spook gang murdered celebrity comedian Patrick Kielty's father a year earlier?

No overarching conspiracy?

A young Patrick Kielty on right of picture, carrying his father's coffin

I know nothing about the political beliefs of celebrity comedian Patrick Kielty (if indeed he has any), but I admire him for one thing and that is if you look at the above picture of a young man burying his father in tragic and terrifying circumstances, you have to say that Kielty has faced into the worst possible adversity and risen above it with honesty and dignity, and he seeks no vengeance. The very opposite values displayed by the politicians, spooks and security force chiefs who created the macabre murder paradigm that wiped out Jack Kielty, Patrick Kielty’s father.

Pat Finucane – The British should declare that it was war - a very dirty war

The big group picture in this article shows the main contingent of what was the British Army’s Force Research Unit. In the middle you can see the commander of the FRU - Gordon Kerr.

Close up of FRU commander Gordon Kerr

At the time this unit targeted Pat Finucane, Kerr held the rank of colonel. Standing right above him in the group picture below is almost certainly Margaret Walshaw who held the rank of sergeant when she worked with Brian Nelson to effect the murder of Pat Finucane. There can be no doubt that the British authorities were pleased with the FRU’s performance because Colonel Kerr, after spending some time in Iraq, was promoted to Brigadier and given a prestige posting to Beijing. Margaret Walshaw, meanwhile was promoted to Captain just at the moment when members of the Pro British death squads she had been “assisting" so assiduously were being thrown into the slammer because of the Stevens Inquiry – will loyalist killers ever learn? Moreover both Walshaw and Kerr were given major awards by the Queen of England - MBE and and OBE respectively. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

Human Rights lawyer Pat Finucane - murdered in front of his family in 1989

If we read closely enough between the lines, the forthcoming De Silva Report into the state sponsored murder of Pat Finucane – see here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20492994 will show that the British Cabinet under Margaret Thatcher (via its Joint Intelligence Committee) clearly approved a non attributable assassination campaign, which was meant to wipe out not only the leadership of Sinn Féin but also prominent advocates for Irish unity and civil rights such as Pat Finucane who were described as “fellow travellers” by the heads of the RUC.

News headlines yesterday told us that Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams received a letter from Sir Desmond de Silva QC advising him that his MI5-vetted report will also refer to a murder plot against Adams as well. Meanwhile, another prominent Sinn Féin figure (former Lord Mayor of Belfast Alex Maskey) has received a similar letter from De Silva saying that covert British forces in the North of Ireland also conspired with pro British death squads to murder him too. Léigh an t-alt uilig - Read Full Article....

The Guardian's Henry McDonald founders on the rocks of liberal Unionism

A couple of days ago, Henry McDonald did a brilliant article about the victims of clerical and school related child abuse who are natives of my parish in Gaoth Dobhair. At last, this author said, Henry has jettisoned his blatant pro Unionist bias and has started concentrating on what he is expected to do as the Guardian's Ireland correspondent - provide us with the very best of informed and balanced comment about what's happening in the whole island of Ireland (this is the Guardian after all - a newspaper that's in my family for three generations).

14 thousand genuine visits to this site in November 2012 - Why?

(The author outside the Irish embassy in Rome this year)
Irish author admits he is happy and not in crisis - don't tell Anne Enwright!

An amazing number of people reading Cic Saor/Free Kick

The Wizard of Oz people who throw shapes in the hypertext background of this site - like weird disc jockeys at their PC stations, speaking in a strange language full of bits and gigs,their eyes bathed in code (and who only seem to come fully alive in the dark, silky ether of night) tell me that 14 thousand real people visited this site in the month of November just passed.